The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) yesterday proposed a rule establishing affordable housing goals for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for years 2018 through 2020. FHFA proposes to maintain most of the affordable housing goals and subgoals at their current level.

FHFA will accept comments on the proposed goals until 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register, which we expect to occur very soon. NCSHA will study the proposed rule in more detail and submit comments on behalf of all HFAs. If you have any thoughts you would like NCSHA to consider, please email Greg Zagorski by Friday, August 11.

The single-family goals and subgoals would be mostly the same levels as they were for 2015-2017. Specifically, 24 percent of the single-family loans the GSEs purchase each year must be made to low-income consumers (those making 80 percent of area median income, or AMI, or below). The one exception is the subgoal for loans used to purchase homes in low-income areas, which the proposed rule would increase from 14 percent of annual single-family loan purchases to 15 percent.

FHFA proposes that it continue to measure the GSEs’ compliance with the single-family goals through a dual approach that takes into account not just the benchmark goals but also the overall housing market’s support for affordable lending.

The proposed rule would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support the development of at least 315,000 rental homes annually that are affordable to renters with incomes at or below 80 percent of AMI, an increase over the current level of 300,000. The subgoals for units affordable to very low-income renters (those earning 50 percent of AMI or below) and for affordable units in small multifamily properties (those properties with 5-50 units) will remain at their current levels of 60,000 and 10,000, respectively.